Why Do People Taunt?

Today we shall discuss why do people taunt. Taunting is a staple let’s Super Smash Brothers series starting from the days of N64 all the way to the Wii U. S,o in this analysis article we’re going to discuss the effects of taunting from our point of view and how we can change the tide of a battle in the realm of video games taunting stretches far beyond smash and into many other games of different genres.

It is always found interesting mainly for competitive games whenever developers decide to include some sort of taunt it affects everyone differently but by definition it serves one purpose to provoke your opponent whether it be peach expressing how sweet her last kill was or sonic telling you how slow you are we’ve all been on the receiving end and more often than not it doesn’t evoke the most pleasant of feelings though why is this in games and actually a lot of other things in life when we put effort into accomplishing something’

We tend to get a good effort or nice try it’s courtesy and respecting a person’s effort go through your mocks for your failure after you poured blood and sweat it’s natural to feel upset or discouraged this is the basis of taunting when used at the right time making cos frustration which in turn can make the opponent play more recklessly taunting usually has different effects based on the situation if you’re just sitting around playing some a player smash with close friends and you see your buddy throwing out like 10 taunts after every kill no one’s going to get mad because everyone knows each other so well.

There’s no disrespect and the taunts are all in good fun on the other hand in a more competitive setting perhaps the tournament match taunting suddenly might have a bit more weight mentally all the times.

You spend practicing all the travel expenses and entry fees you’ve paid and the placement goals you’ve set for yourself are all put on the line now of course most professional players are probably not really fazed by taunting due to how much experience they’ve had in a competitive environment but nonetheless it can still get the better of any of us in certain situations personally.

I find defensive characters get the most out of taunting especially when they have a considerable lead they want you to make it no decisions and go for reckless approaches and if taunting can help with that that’s an extra tool at their disposal it’s funny though because I feel the effects of taunting can go both ways sometimes since taunting is regarded as a sign of confidence there can be added pressure on at ‘enter to back it up with good performance if the tantra gets destroyed right after that can be quite embarrassing hence the term conjugate body combo.

Taunting can reach far beyond the simple character animation and voice lines developers put in as an example I’d like to bring up a pretty intimate set which we hope most of you guys have already seen between lesson and chillindude at the apex salty/sweet for those who don’t know this is a highly anticipated match between two Pro Fox players which was riding on a lot of hype going into the set the pressure on both players was very high trash talk was rampant and diss tracks were made which garnered a lot of attention from the community throughout the set.

You can see lesson was confident both in game and on camera so confident they threw out a talent in the first game and giving up an edge card opportunity when you were three games up he went for a very punishable Firefox which somehow managed to land and kill in the last match he randomly spammed lasers and illusions on stage although they weren’t erect on they essentially had the same effect as a taunt when your opponent uses such punishable and predictable tactics it’s usually a sign that they aren’t taking you very seriously and in a supposedly serious set with so much pride on the line.

It negatively affected children, lose mentality quite a bit even in games that don’t have any kind of designated taunt buttons players still find a way to taunt tea bagging and shooting games is a pretty well-known example watching your lifeless corpse hump by the person that killed you in the kill cam definitely does not conjure up the most pleasant of feelings as a result that player who got teabag may lose sight of the objective and target the teabagger for revenge we can see this exact same behavior replicated in even single-player games like the provoked ability and finals fancy which forces the enemy to target only you and not your party or the move taunts in Pokemon which enrages the foes so much that they can only use attack moves no doubt counting is widely not regarded as the most respectable thing to do in a match.

Despite the impact it can have on the opponent’s mental game which makes it even more interesting when a taunt has actual properties throughout the smash series there are few tones that have a tangible impact most notable would be Luigi’s with hands behind his back couples of a very bored expression he lightly kicks the ground and if you’ve played any smash since melee you probably know what happens next despite the taunt being a potential kill move it’s extremely difficult to land due to its tiny hitbox and slow startup if and when your opponent goes for this in a competitive match you know they’re not taking you very seriously.

If they miraculously manage the land the meteor that’s double-whammy and salt in the wound we can actually find taunts like this applied in many other games too namely Tekken and Team Fortress Miguel’s taunt can one-hit kill as well as the characters in tf2 but in both cases the hitbox comes out very slow a very interesting application of taunting.

I’d like to bring up is in WWE every time you taunt your finisher meter would build up though if you get interrupted you’ll lose it I felt this is a really nice touch from the devs we can affect more than just a mental game but the actual metagame itself all this brainstorming about the effects of taunting.

While I was writing this article, kind of had me thinking can it all just be in our minds when a person gets haunted by a CPU they won’t get angry because they know that’s what it’s programmed to do there is no ill will turn the tables around and if it’s a human player taunting you suddenly it’s disrespect but in reality it’s the exact same action being performed from another perspective what is tons in Smash were called emotes instead would people still be provoked if the action assigned to the d-pad had a positive meaning simply by its definition.

For example in overwatch there are no tones instead their emotion however some of them can essentially be interpreted as taunts as a gesture the hero does can be quite mocking though no one that.

I’ve ever encountered an overwatch ever saw emotive taunts rather just small actions that gave the hero more character my point is maybe some people are affected by taunting simply due to the fact that they’re called taunts in another fighting game guilty gear xrd the devs actually designated a taunt button as well as a respect button where the respect animations are very positive.

This is a very nice addition which you hope other games will adopt as we face players in the past who taunted not to mock but it’s a way to communicate and express something in the end. We feel taunting at the right time can definitely sway the momentum of a match the keys and not let taunts mentally affect you when you get salty over a taunt, you’re giving your opponent control over you and they will take advantage of it or you know just turn away if you’re just having a good time. Well, that’s pretty much about the topic, these antigens my thoughts on taunting what are yours how does taunting affect you, let us know in the comment section. Check our article on why do people like doodle.